Esther and Whiteface

Feb 28, 2009

Whiteface and Esther are two peaks of the 46 that stand apart from the high peaks region to the south. The east aspect of Whiteface is a big ski resort, and during the summer one can drive up to the summit by simply paying a few dollars toll to use the road, and then rest your weary gas pedal foot in the restaurant to prepare yourself for the extensive braking on the way down. For this reason, I decided that this peak had to be done in the winter, when the road is closed. Even better, I figured that if we hauled our skis to the top, we could simply ski down on the road after summiting.

Anyway, Andy, David, and myself set out to conquer both Esther and Whiteface in a bitterly cold early morning. The previous day had an extensive rain, so we were worried about conditions, especially for the ski down. We drove to the base of the Whiteface Memorial Highway and assesed the road. It looked to be in fairly poor shape, but somewhat ski-able, so we decided to go with the original plan of snow shoeing up, carrying our skis, and then returning via skis. We dropped one vehicle at the toll gate, and then drove back to the town of Willmington and began our climb from the reservoir. The day quickly warmed as the sun rose, and we shed layers as we went up the south aspect of Marble mountain. There was very little snow, and often we were snowshoeing on bare ground and rock. There was plenty of ice, so we kept the snow shoes on for traction. Once Marble was summited, the snow got a little deeper. The walking was easy as the snow was very crusty and no flotation was necessary. We hiked along enjoing views of both Whiteface and Esther peaks in the brilliant sunshine. We found an unmarked trail that headed to Esther, so we ditched the skis and hiked up over Lookout Mountain (which did not seem to have any spectacular lookout), and onwards along the ridge to the summit of Esther where we had lunch in the warm sunshine. We hiked back to the trail junction, re-attached our skis to our packs, and then set out towards the looming peak of Whiteface in the distance. The trail sometimes got narrow, and the skis continually got caught up on overhead branches, causing us to curse repeatedly, however progress was still very good. I was planning for an 8 hour summit time, and we seemed to be about a half hour ahead of schedule as we approached. The higher up we went, the deeper the snow got, and eventually the crust even disappeared and we then got to snow shoe through the powder. We came the base of a large retaining wall at one of the switchbacks of the road, where Andy decided he would climb directly up and over. Silly him though, he left his pack at the bottom (and could not safely climb back down), so he had to walk around and come back. We continued on, still ahead of schedule until we hit the final section of trail which went up the ridge to the summit. Here we hit our first ice problem. A short scramble on slick ice over a couple rock ledges. Fortunately with Andy's ice climbing expertise, some rope and a pair of ice tools that we brought, we managed to get over it after spending about half an hour in logistics. Another 50 meters up the trail we hit our second ice problem. This time it was a slick ice slope, which dropped over a substantial cliff. To slip and fall here meant death, but with help and coaching from Andy, all three of us made it across safely. Shortly after this we broke above the tree line, and had a stunning ridge walk on bare rock and crusty snow for the last 500m to the summit, meeting our 8 hour time plan just about perfectly. After a 30 minute break, we traveled down a very scary ice covered stairway to the start of the road. Fortunately there were sturdy hand rails, which we used extensively. We switched to skis and slowly made our way down the ice covered roadway. Andy and I were equipped with back country gear, so were fairly confident in the icy conditions, but David on standard cross country skis was having difficulty, so the way was slow going. Many sections of the road were bare pavement so we had to walk for long stretches at a time. A couple short sections had nice (but thin) snow, and they were a lot of fun. The conditions made for a long an arduous descent, from which we were then rewarded with a beautiful sunset, and a brilliant night sky as darkness fell. David was really beginning to feel tired at this point, so we divided up the load (Andy taking most of it). We continued on in the dark, until finally reaching the toll booth and the end of our adventure, a full twelve hours after starting. Hungry, sore, and exhausted, but triumphant, we found the first restaurant we could in Willmington and sat down for a giant tasty meal, and some mediocre (but still tasty nevertheless) beers.

Andy keeping warm on the cold start.